ObscenityCrimes.org Logs 70,000th Complaint
Site tracks complaints about possible violations of obscenity laws.
By: Sherri L. Shaulis
Posted: 02/26/2008
NEW YORK -
ObscenityCrimes.org,
launched in 2002 by the group
Morality
in Media, logged its 70,000th complaint on Feb. 23.
The site is designed to be a
place to register complaints about possible violations of federal Internet
obscenity laws. The mission of the site, according to literature from Morality
in Media, is to collect complaints from people who are unintentionally exposed
to pornography on the Internet, or whose children are exposed to pornography online.
According to the website, each
complainant must be at least 18 years old and is asked to provide the Internet
address of the site he or she was unintentionally exposed to and not include
any knowingly false or fictitious statements, since "the information you
provide is forwarded to U.S. attorneys, and a federal law prohibits the making
of a false or fictitious statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the
Justice Department."
It is not made clear on the
website how many of the 70,000 complaints have led to investigations by the Department
of Justice.
Statistics listed on the site
show that large numbers of complaints come from historically conservative areas
of the country, including Texas, northern Georgia, northern Illinois
and central California.
"ObscenityCrimes.org was
intended to provide a link between citizens, whose homes and children are assaulted
by Internet obscenity, and federal prosecutors, who enforce federal Internet
obscenity laws," said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media. "The site
was pattered after CyberTipline.com, which allows citizens to report possible
violations of child pornography laws."
Peters said the success of
ObscenityCrimes.org has exceeded expectations.
"Prior to launching the
project, we wondered whether citizens would make complaints and whether the (Justice)
Department would welcome these complaints," he said. "We now have more than
70,000 complaints, and after [the site's] launch, the Justice Department
expressed appreciation for the project on several occasions, including in
testimony before a Senate committee."
But Peters also noted there
could be improvement in the area of Internet obscenity crime prosecutions, saying
the Department of Justice and the FBI have focused more on curbing sexual
exploitation of children and trafficking in women and children.
"These, too, are important
battles, but 'adult' obscenity (hardcore pornography that does not depict
actual children) also causes great harm," Peters said.
That harm, he said, includes sexual
harassment and violence against women and the breakups of marriages because of
addiction to hardcore pornography.
